Despite tonight's original task for tonight having been completed last night, we managed to sort a replacement task litter pick around Water End and Poppleton Road as Ed had noticed lots of litter there. We split off in different directions in pairs with several groups heading for the area around the RSPCA, others to Millenium Green and a couple heading further down Poppleton Rd. By the end of the hour we had lots of litter in our bags. Jane and Paul had a hopeful look for the aurora on the way back but it proved trickier to see than the litter of which there was plenty, some of which larger than others!

The problem with the January challenge is that we do so many good deeds that our taskowners run out of things for us to do, as was the case late last night with the council's eco team and the scheduled task at Clarence Gardens. We'd already done all the work earlier in the month. Fortunately, with a flurry of WhatsApp messages and our wonderful run leader Laura we were able to come up with a couple of tasks to fill the void and keep everyone just about busy enough.

Tonight we gave a big GG Yorkie welcome (and one dissenting boo) to Jenni who was joining is from GoodGym Reading. Great to have you here, despite Pete's rivalry! We also welcomed back Carys and Rohail who had enjoyed themselves so much last week tjat they decided to return. There were a fair few tired legs tonight after some fantastic running at the Brass Monkey half, so a lot of people were grateful for the steadier run out to the allotment task with Vicky, whilst Ed led the larger group to the community gardens with Pete and Lucy bringing up the rear.

Dan very quickly realised we would be working on the gardens at the end of his road and was almost tempted to get his "goodgym-curious" partner out to join us. Another night perhaps. At the task Laura had prepared a list of jobs that needed doing and the GG York crew got to work weeding, pruning, digging and sweeping. As we worked away we managed to spend a bit of time getting to know our newer members a bit better. Turns out Rohail is yet to try a jacket potato (cheese and beans seemed to be the best choice for an entry-level jacket) and Carys just casually dropped that she done some pretty epic running events in the past, including the Berlin Marathon!

Meanwhile, over with Vicky...

A splinter group of ladies headed to Holgate Allotments and were tasked with covering all the community allotment paths with woodchip. We quickly got stuck in and soon had a conveyor of wheelbarrows going back and forth. Alongside this was team weed, who cleared some of the paths before the bark arrived.

We had almost finished when the other group arrived, but being the perfectionists that we are, we had one final push to make sure we got the job done! We were very proud of our work and the paths look ace, if we do say so ourselves!

Once both tasks were completed we regrouped for an epic game of musical cones, with a little bit of cheating and some heated debate over the rules, before we headed back to the pub where some joined in with the cool down but most got themselves a reasonably well earned pint

Lovely stuff

Back to Danesmead Wood to try and finish the path. It was a but wet but the five of us made good inroads into the pile of woodchip and ensure the path was refreshed. We then had a cuppa and a snack and headed off to get dry.

Seven of us met at Woodthorpe Primary School ready to get stuck into some barkchip shifting. We were all delighted to find out that the distance between the barkchip pile and its end location was minimal - except Leanne who wanted to get some extra KM's in and reluctantly paused her watch when she realised she wasn't going to.

The barkchip pile that was donated to the school had some quirks. Several logs of various sizes buried within that made the shovelling quite tough. We had to first find a log, then loosen it and dig it out for Jane to shift. Or in Leanne's case - throw it at Jane. Several times. With varying excuses such as, "I thought you were Pete!"

The hour was soon up and we made the hard journey onwards to the pub to celebrate!

On a cold, crisp night, six GoodGymmers returned to the Groves after Sunday's task to finish clearing the outside space.

The pallet truck was a novelty that caused some excitement (and a lot of noise). We loaded the soil that had been bagged up from the planters onto the truck over two trips and transported it to suitable locations for reuse.

We also cleared the path, removed some buddleia and bagged up all the branches and vegetation we'd left on Sunday.

A job well done.